MovieMaidens is dedicated to the most beautiful classic actresses during the first 75 years of Hollywood...remembering them when they were young and beautiful.

Dame of the Day: Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood

Natasha 1950s

“You get tough in this business, until you get big enough to hire people to get tough for you. Then you can sit back and be a lady.”
Most Beautiful Classic Actresses of All Time
1920s   ♥   1930s   ♥   1940s  ♥   1950s
Marilyn Monroe

#1: Marilyn Monroe

1950s icon1950s

“I want to be a big star more than anything. It's something precious.”
 
Hedy Lamarr

#2: Hedy Lamarr

"The Most Beautiful Woman In Film"1940s

“Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.”
 
Elizabeth Taylor

#3: Elizabeth Taylor

Liz1950s

“I've only slept with the men I've been married to. How many women can make that claim?”
 
Greta Garbo

#4: Greta Garbo

"The Face"1930s

“I never said, 'I wanted to be alone', I said 'I want to be left alone'”
 
Audrey Hepburn

#5: Audrey Hepburn

1950s sweetheart1950s

“I don't have sex appeal and I know it. As a matter of fact, I think I'm rather funny looking. My teeth are funny, for one thing, and I have none of the attributes usually required for a movie queen, including the shapeliness.”
 
Ava Gardner

#6: Ava Gardner

1940s beauty1940s

“What I'd really like to say about stardom is that it gave me everything I never wanted. Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.”
 
Grace Kelly

#7: Grace Kelly

"Gracie"1950s

“Hollywood amuses me. Holier-than-thou for the public and unholier-than-the-devil in reality.”
 
Jean Harlow

#8: Jean Harlow

"Baby" or "The Platinum Blonde"1930s

“Men like me because I don't wear a brassiere. Women like me because I don't look like a girl who would steal a husband. At least not for long.”
 
Gene Tierney

#9: Gene Tierney

1940s movie star1940s

“I dated dozens of young men, had fun with all, made commitments to none.”
 
Rita Hayworth

#10: Rita Hayworth

"The Love Goddess"1940s

“I think all women have a certain elegance about them which is destroyed when they take off their clothes.”
 
Sophia Loren

#11: Sophia Loren

1950s movie star1950s

“Many people think they want things, but they don't really have the strength, the discipline. They are weak. I believe that you get what you want if you want it badly enough.”
 
Carole Lombard

#12: Carole Lombard

The Profane Angel, The Hoosier Tornado1930s

“I've lived by a man's code designed to fit a man's world, yet at the same time I never forget that a woman's first job is to choose the right shade of lipstick.”
 
Louise Brooks

#13: Louise Brooks

"LuLu" or "Brooksie"1920s

“Love is a publicity stunt, and making love - after the first curious raptures - is only another petulant way to pass the time waiting for the studio to call.”
 
Brigitte Bardot

#14: Brigitte Bardot

"B.B."1950s

“I gave my beauty and my youth to men. I am going to give my wisdom and experience to animals.”
 
Natalie Wood

#15: Natalie Wood

Natasha 1950s

“You get tough in this business, until you get big enough to hire people to get tough for you. Then you can sit back and be a lady.”
 
Loretta Young

#16: Loretta Young

Attila the Nun, Saint Loretta1930s

“A face that is really lovely in repose can fall apart if, when its owner starts to talk, she distorts every feature.”
 
Lana Turner

#17: Lana Turner

Sweater Girl1940s

“A successful man is one who makes more money than a wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man.”
 
Marlene Dietrich

#18: Marlene Dietrich

"Lili Marlene"1930s

“The legs aren't so beautiful. I just know what to do with them.”
 
Ingrid Bergman

#19: Ingrid Bergman

1940s iconic actress1940s

“I can do everything with ease on the stage, whereas in real life I feel too big and clumsy. So I didn't choose acting. It chose me.”
 
Clara Bow

#20: Clara Bow

The "It" Girl1920s

“We had individuality. We did as we pleased. We stayed up late. We dressed the way we wanted.”
 
Jane Russell

#21: Jane Russell

1950s movie star1950s

“Sometimes the photographers would pose me in a low-necked nightgown and tell me to bend down and pick up the pails. They were not shooting the pails.”
 
Vivien Leigh

#22: Vivien Leigh

Vivling1940s

“Some critics saw fit to say that I was a great actress. I thought that was a foolish, wicked thing to say...”
 
Joan Crawford

#23: Joan Crawford

"Billie" or "Cranberry"1930s

“Women's Lib? Poor little things. They always look so unhappy. Have you noticed how bitter their faces are?”
 
Ginger Rogers

#24: Ginger Rogers

1940s movie star1940s

“I'm most grateful to have had that joyous time in motion pictures. It really was a Golden Age of Hollywood. Pictures were talking, they were singing, they were coloring.”
 
Joan Fontaine

#25: Joan Fontaine

1940s beautiful actress1940s

“The main problem in marriage is that, for a man, sex is a hunger. If he is hungry and can't get to a fancy French restaurant, he'll go to a hot dog stand.”
 
Jennifer Jones

#26: Jennifer Jones

1940s movie star1940s

“If you could choose one characteristic that would get you through life, choose a sense of humor.”
 
Claudette Colbert

#27: Claudette Colbert

"Lily"1930s

“I think there was more sex in those old films than in all that thrashing around today [1960s]. I'm tired of sex scenes.”
 
Kim Novak

#28: Kim Novak

1950s movie star1950s

“I loved acting, which was never about money, the fame. It was about a search for meaning. It was painful.”
 
Myrna Loy

#29: Myrna Loy

Queen of Hollywood, The Perfect Wife1930s

“Some perfect wife I am. I've been married four times, divorced four times, have no children, and can't boil an egg.”
 
Joan Collins

#30: Joan Collins

"The British Open"1950s

“The problem with beauty is that it's like being born rich and getting poorer.”
 
Mary Pickford

#31: Mary Pickford

Baby Gladys, The Glad Girl1920s

“It would have been more logical if silent pictures had grown out of the talkies instead of the other way around”
 
Fay Wray

#32: Fay Wray

The Queen of Scream1930s

“As soon as I got off the boat, a man met me and said, 'Will you please come up to the BBC studios and scream for us?'”
 
Susan Hayward

#33: Susan Hayward

1940s movie star1940s

“You aim at all the things you have been told that stardom means--the rich life, the applause, the parties. Then you find that you have it all. And it is nothing, really nothing.”
 
Veronica Lake

#34: Veronica Lake

"The Peek-a-boo Girl"1940s

“Hollywood gives a young girl the aura of one giant, self-contained orgy farm, its inhabitants dedicated to crawling into every pair of pants they can find.”
 
Barbara Stanwyck

#35: Barbara Stanwyck

Missy1930s

“I'm a tough old broad from Brooklyn. I intend to go on acting until I'm ninety and they won't need to paste my face with make-up.”
 
Jayne Mansfield

#36: Jayne Mansfield

1950s movie star1950s

“My father was the only man I ever knew who really loved me unselfishly, who never used me for personal gain.”
 
Thelma Todd

#37: Thelma Todd

Hot Toddy, The Ice Cream Blonde1930s

Marion Davies

#38: Marion Davies

1920s film comedienne and philanthropist1920s

“With me it was 5% talent and 95% publicity.”
 
Bette Davis

#39: Bette Davis

"The Fifth Warner Brother," or "The First Lady of Film"1930s

“An affair now and then is good for a marriage. It adds spice, stops it from getting boring. I ought to know.”
 
Lillian Gish

#40: Lillian Gish

"The First Lady of American Cinema"1920s

“I think the things that are necessary in my profession are these: Taste, Talent and Tenacity. I think I have had a little of all three.”
 
Jeanne Crain

#41: Jeanne Crain

"Hollywood's Number One party girl"1950s

“I loved being at the studio [20th Century-Fox]. After all, I started at 15, and I grew up there.”
 
Betty Grable

#42: Betty Grable

"The Pin-Up Girl" or "The Girl With the Million Dollar Legs"1940s

“...putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered they could give orders better from there.”
 
Diana Dors

#43: Diana Dors

"The Siren of Swindon" or "Hurricane in Mink"1950s

“I was the first home-grown sex symbol... When Marilyn Monroe's first film was shown, a columnist wrote, 'How much like our Diana Dors she is'.”
 
Lauren Bacall

#44: Lauren Bacall

"Baby" or "The Look"1940s

“Men need to feel important. They feel better when they're with younger girls or unknown girls.”
 
Linda Darnell

#45: Linda Darnell

"Tweedles"1940s

“People got tired of seeing the sweet young things I was playing and I landed at the bottom of the roller coaster. I'd crammed thirty years into ten...I missed out on my girlhood, the fun, little things that now seem important.”
 
Mae West

#46: Mae West

1930s movie star1930s

“Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere else.”
 
Katharine Hepburn

#47: Katharine Hepburn

"Kate" and "First Lady of Cinema"1940s

“If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married.”
 
Maureen O'Sullivan

#48: Maureen O'Sullivan

1930s movie star1930s

“I don't think I ever got parts that interested me. Well, I did occasionally, but more often than not they did not interest me.”
 
Lucille Ball

#49: Lucille Ball

"Queen of the B's"1940s

“Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead.”
 
Carole Landis

#50: Carole Landis

"The 'Ping' Girl"1940s

“I want to be as good an actress as Bette Davis, and I'd like to be a great singer. But more than that I'd like to be happily married and have some children.”
 
Shirley MacLaine

#51: Shirley MacLaine

1950s movie star1950s

“I was always a character actress and never a sex symbol. Even when I was the leading lady, I was a character actor.”
 
Ann Sheridan

#52: Ann Sheridan

The "Oomph" Girl1940s

“They nicknamed me "The Oomph Girl", and I loathe that nickname! Just being known by a nickname indicates that you're not thought of as a true actress.”
 
Olivia de Havilland

#53: Olivia de Havilland

"Livvie"1940s

“Playing good girls in the '30s was difficult, when the fad was to play bad girls. Actually I think playing bad girls is a bore; I have always had more luck with good girl roles because they require more from an actress.”
 
Ella Raines

#54: Ella Raines

1940s movie star1940s

Vilma Banky

#55: Vilma Banky

"The Hungarian Rhapsody"1920s

“For the love scenes in my first Hollywood silent picture I spoke in Hungarian, and my co-star chatted about cricket and kippers.”
 
Margaret Lindsay

#56: Margaret Lindsay

1930s movie star1930s

“The little things are most worthwhile- quiet word, a look, a smile.”
 
Judy Garland

#57: Judy Garland

1940s entertainer1940s

“In the silence of night I have often wished for just a few words of love from one man, rather than the applause of thousands of people.”
 
Joan Blondell

#58: Joan Blondell

1930s sexy wisecracker1930s

“It amazes me how some of these little numbers with dreamy looks and a dead pan are getting away with not acting. ”
 
Jane Wyman

#59: Jane Wyman

1940s movie star1940s

“I don't know why I'd have to cooperate because he knows everything I know. I'm just going to live my life and have fun.”
 
Dorothy Lamour

#60: Dorothy Lamour

"The Beautiful One" or "Dottie"1940s

“Glamor is just sex that got civilized. A pretty girl, tastefully posed in a scant costume, is even a sort of cultural achievement.”
 
Barbara Lawrence

#61: Barbara Lawrence

1950s movie star1950s

Ann Sothern

#62: Ann Sothern

1930s movie star1930s

“We were just big names--the products of a good publicity department. Today's crop of actresses and actors have real talent. Good looks are no longer an essential part of the business.”
 
Joan Bennett

#63: Joan Bennett

1930s winsome blonde1930s

“I turned my hair dark and have received much better parts ever since.”
 
Alice White

#64: Alice White

1930s flirt1930s

“Look at that Marilyn Monroe walk. I did it first. That's an Alice White walk!”
 
Jeanette MacDonald

#65: Jeanette MacDonald

Jenni, Jam1930s

“I've been told I have an Irish temper, I know I have Scottish thrift, and, like the English, I love a good show.”
 
Anita Page

#66: Anita Page

1930s movie star1930s

“It's great to be in Hollywood, but [my producer] Mr. Thaw says we can't have boyfriends or go to any parties.”
 
Una Merkel

#67: Una Merkel

1930s movie star1930s

“And I’m grateful, too, to have been in a business in which you can work as long as you can walk.”
 
Sally Blane

#68: Sally Blane

1930s B-movie starlet1930s

“Loretta was always really ambitious ... But while she was concentrating on her career, I had all the beaus.”
 
Eleanor Powell

#69: Eleanor Powell

Queen of Ra-Ta-Taps1930s

“Once I was identified as a tap dancer that was it - because nobody had ever seen that kind of thing before.”
 
Marie Wilson

#70: Marie Wilson

1930s comic cutie1930s

“Some day I just wish someone would offer me a different kind of role. My closest friends admit that whenever they tell someone they know me they have to convince them that I'm really not dumb. ”
 
Norma Shearer

#71: Norma Shearer

The First Lady of MGM, Queen Norma1930s

“Never let them see you in public after you've turned 35. You're finished if you do!”
 
Mary Astor

#72: Mary Astor

"The Cameo Girl" or "Rusty"1930s

“I was never totally involved in movies. I was just making my father's dream come true.”
 
Virginia Bruce

#73: Virginia Bruce

1930s pale-eyed blonde1930s

“My chief purpose in life is to fall in love. I don't know why I want to, but I do.”
 
Constance Bennett

#74: Constance Bennett

1930s fashion star1930s

“Marilyn Monroe? There's a broad with her future behind her!”
 
Glenda Farrell

#75: Glenda Farrell

1930s actress1930s

“Not many silent-film actors could talk. So they shoved the ones that came from Broadway into everything. It all went so fast. I used to ask myself, 'What set am I on today?”
 
Madge Evans

#76: Madge Evans

1930s "nice girl" actress1930s

“I became a Typical American Girl by the accident of a few early picture parts ... I'm stuck with it. Maybe I'd like to be known as a mysterious silent woman...Nobody cares.”
 
Marian Marsh

#77: Marian Marsh

1930s movie star1930s

“In my first audition, the director told me to cry - it was exactly what I wanted to do. I cried all over the place, and he thought it was great acting. I got the contract.”
 
Ruth Chatterton

#78: Ruth Chatterton

1930s actress, novelist, and early aviator1930s

“I know for some women, men are a household necessity; myself, I'd rather have a canary. ”
 
Evalyn Knapp

#79: Evalyn Knapp

1930s movie star1930s

Miriam Hopkins

#80: Miriam Hopkins

"Mims"1930s

“TV is the toughest medium because there's more strain, but the theatre requires the most work. Movies are the easiest. You can sip coffee between takes.”
 
Kay Francis

#81: Kay Francis

Queen of Warner Brothers1930s

“A dog has kindliness in his heart and dignity in his demeanor. The finest qualities anyone can have.”
 
Blanche Sweet

#82: Blanche Sweet

1920s silent film actress1920s

“I was stubborn, I was difficult, I played games, I was to fall in love, oh there are reasons and reasons.”